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Catastrophic (turbo) engine failure - mechanical history of a disaster

While looking for 206 video on YouTube, I found this very detailed video, relating a catastrophic engine failure leading to drama on August 15, 2015. The aircraft was a recent T206H, and had had a lot of engine maintenance the previous years. All is very detailed in the second part of the video (from 7:14).

You can find a summary of the investigation here.
One can read this:

Examination of the wreckage revealed signatures indicating that the propeller and the turbocharger’s turbine wheel were not rotating during the impact sequence, which is indicative of a loss of engine power. The spark plug electrodes displayed evidence of black sooty deposits indicative of carbon fouling. The carbon fouling could have been the result of failure of the turbocharging system, which can result in an overly rich mixture condition so severe as to cause a total power failure.

I thought it would be a good addition to this post, about Turbocharger failure procedure.

Last Edited by PetitCessnaVoyageur at 23 Sep 05:44

Thanks, that’s interesting.

The less I fly, the more I value simplicity!

GA turbocharger installations in the old air cooled engines are not reliable. Arguably they were tacked-on onto engines not designed for it. This is reflected in most not making 2k hrs before needing new cylinders. And if the plumbing fails, you get a lot of very hot air coming out which can do a lot of damage. One previous thread is here. OTOH, of course, if you are flying over mountains or trying to outclimb bad wx, you will be glad you have it

However, and I realise most people don’t watch videos, isn’t the dreadful condition of the parts striking? It looks like this plane sat on the bottom of the sea for a few years.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

To be fair those engine parts had been recovered from a raging post-crash fire.

Andreas IOM
4 Posts
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